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BAA seals £1.26bn Budapest deal

BAA, Britain’s biggest airports operator, sketched out ambitious plans yesterday to expand Budapest airport to the size of Gatwick, after sealing a £1.26 billion deal to buy a majority stake in the state-owned Hungarian hub.

BAA will take a near-75 per cent stake in the business as part of a deal in which the British group will run the airport for the next 75 years.

Mike Clasper, BAA’s chief executive, said that the airport, which has as much land as London’s Heathrow, has the potential to handle 40 million passengers a year, compared with the seven million that pass through it at present. The BAA-owned Gatwick handles about 40 million travellers.